The Huge Russki Island Bridge: Russia (2021)

The Russki Island Bridge: Sometimes, it seems the question is that no bridge is built in vain to achieve a world record, and in this case, never better expressed given the quality in which this construction is world champion. The Russki Island Bridge It is not the longest in its class nor the highest, but it manages to carve a niche in the multiple rankings to those who aspire to these mega-constructions (we are not talking about small bridges).

That of Russki Island is the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world. Until the construction of the impressive Millau viaduct, it was also the bridge of this type with the highest pillars, of 320 meters, but the construction through the Tarn valley took this gold from him by climbing to 343 meters.

From Russia with dough

Russia is the largest country in the world, it touches several oceans and seas, and with thousands of kilometers of coastline (and over 50 islands), it is quite suitable for long bridges. At the same time, the idea of ​​creating a bridge between Alaska and Russia’s easternmost point resisted (although there may have been at one point in history, the Russians built bridges in less demanding environments and with good Schedule if we are talking about that of Russki Island. Of course, nothing is a coincidence.

Russki Island is a geographic formation located in the Sea of ​​Japan, about 600 meters from the mainland of Vladivostok, a city under the administration of which it belongs. Between the island and the Russian city, there is the so-called Eastern Bosporus Strait, so the bridge connects this island with the mainland.

Covering  ​​about 96 square kilometers, this island had some military importance in Soviet times, serving as a stronghold for Vladivostok in the south. After the war conflicts in the region, the strategy with it is different, and the interest focused on increasing its value as a tourist resource.

The idea? Simple: there is no shorter distance between two points than a straight line. The construction of a bridge over these 600 meters has become an attractive and colorful solution that could also solve some political and economic problems.

As The Economist wrote in 2012, after its inauguration, the bridge was “ a symbol Moscow’s plans for developing the eastern tip of Russia and establishing closer ties with Asia, the “most important geopolitical task” to President Vladimir Putin. “Unnecessary.”

Leaving aside the historical context of its construction, the point is that they set to work to create this structure whose dimensions, although not for the most part being in the world records, do not go unnoticed either. . The shortest distance from coast to coast is 1,460 meters, measuring 1,885 kilometers in length and those 320 meters that we discussed in the height of the towers.

Russki Island Bridge: Its length is not close to 164 kilometers of the longest bridge globally (in China, where would it be otherwise), but almost better. We are talking about a zone with a very wide thermal oscillation, ranging from 37 degrees Celsius to -31 ° C.

Ice (reaching over 70 centimeters thick above the sea) and snow are not the only climatic challenges this structure has to endure. The area is affected by typhoons of up to 100 kilometers per hour, and the waves reach six meters.

The central section of the Russki Island Bridge is the protagonist: beyond the views it has, its central section suspended by cables is 1104 meters (i.e., span length, which, as defined by RAI, is the horizontal distance between the attachment points of conductors in two consecutive brackets).

The Russki Island Bridge was built as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Conference, which took place on the same island in September 2012, its inauguration. A work that costs approximately $ 1.1 billion (as of this point) is part of the pinch that the top (around 20,000 million) cost.